liiiiliiliifiiii^^^^^
;^
O^ ' « • «
•*b v-
St ■:, SI. ■•■ A. ■•»/ .A. V,, ,. ; ..^\ ■ ■• ./v •.»;•..*
^v' ^^^ •,-.. ,,->> "^ ^ • - ■ ' ,■<
o > .^- •
% vJy _. -^.-'*. . ^ ^ ' ■ ^:o V ^
* >^ ^^ ■-- ■■P ^ "^ ^
C' ^J^tt/>0^ ' 'P <:
<p.
-■■^ ■y . O >
•. "*b v'
^s •_• '^ V- v^ » ' * "' o
^''X
•^
^^.^^,:,>. ;• ,^.-;^.,%^^co ,^^, ^^^-^ ,>^', %^^cP ^
-p c" -V^-,.,
^0'
'^x.
(Y* , o " a ^ *0 .V
c^
^.•:-^:.'.
j,°-^^ -■ ■
r^ • • '
v.^'^''
>^
%
•-> ' . . •
O
<^ * o w " . ■
■' ^' ^-^.^rv-V ^■''»:v'-y^ ^''^rv^V ^'^»-v^^ ^'.-•'■/
0^
^".--.-^ .o^.^^^v-^ /",--:,% c°^.c — -.-^ ,
< O
^0
^ -^ •'>^|.^' / "^^ -A
A '
o
• • "^-^ A. >
•■ ' t'tJ' '
'■ ^0^
o
o. -.r-, •
./■
<-.
'o . ',
'«>.
ATERBURY AND HeR INDUSTRIES
FIFTY ATTRACTIVE AND CAREFULLY SELECTED VIEWS,
By the Photogravure process, as photographed from nature,
OF THE MANY LEADING
Manufacturing Establishments, Public Buildings, Churches, Residences,
PARK, STREET AND GENERAL BIRD'S-EYE VIEWS OF WATERBURY, CONN.,
TOGETHER WITH A
HisTORicAi, Sketch op thu City and its yarious Indu^tri^;^,
By HOMER F. 8ASSETT,
REPRESENTING THE WATERBURY OF TO-DAY. \
Negatives by ADT & BROTHER.
iublrsljfi) bg tlj« l^itljotnpc |li-intiiig anir f ubltsbing Co.,
GARDNER, MASS.
'6t
TO THE REPRESENTATIVE BUSINESS MEN OF WATERBURY,
WHO, BY THEIR
UNFAILING COURTESY AND HEARTY CO-OPERATION, HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO ITS PREPARATION,
THIS WORK IS
MOST CORDIALLY DEDICATED.
<\0
xji'b'
Ik
0-^
Nji'-
Historical Sketch of Waterbury,
By homer f. bassett.
^MTATTATUCK, "the badly wooded region," the original name of Waterbury, seems to have been only an Indian hunting ground
— ^ at the time it was purchased by the whites. No Indians lived within its limits, and their title to it was extinguished by paying
twice or more, for portions of it to dififerent tribes that claimed it.
Evidence exists — in the shape of arrow and spear heads and other stone implements — that it was inhabited, or much fre-
quented in earlier times, but there is nothing to indicate that it was ever "lull of Indians." The aboriginal population was, no doubt,
vastly over-estimated, but we are hardly prepared for the careful estimate of a recent writer, "that the number of Indians in Connect-
icut at the time the first white settlements were made was not more than six or seven thousand."
The early settlers lived in fear of attack by the savages for a long time, but the most serious matters were the capture of Mr.
Scott and his two sons, in 1707, and the murder of Mr. Holt, in 17 10. The captives were carried to Canada, but were at length
redeemed. The father and oldest son returned to Waterbury, but the youngest son preferred savage life and remained with his
captors.
For the first thirty-five years, such was the dread of the Indians that some of the principal houses were stockaded, and in these
the inhabitants took refuge in times of greatest danger. Men carried arms when at work in the fields, sentinels were stationed on the
hill tops and scouts ranged the surrounding forests to guard against surprise. It was owing to this state of things that small "home
lots" of a few acres were set out to each of the thirty original settlers, while the "meadows" were inclosed as a common field on
which the proprietors erected no buildings.
The natural meadows — miniature prairies — that bordered the Connecticut, the Farmington, the Naugatuck and many other
New England rivers, were very attractive to English emigrants and led them to choose these open spots for early settlement. These
emigrants were to live by agriculture ; hence, Hadley, Northampton, Springfield, Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield on the Connect-
icut, New Haven on the Quinnipiac, Farmington on the Farmington river, and Mattatuck on the Mattatuck river, and many other
places that might be named, were selected because of the advantages they offered for grazing and easy tillage.
(.1)
Waterbury originally extended along the Naugatuck river, eighteen miles from north to south, and had an average breadth of
eight miles. The present towns of Watertown, Plymouth and Thomaston, and nearly all of Middlebury, one half of Wolcott, and a
small part of Oxford and Prospect were included in this territory.
Thirty of the thirty-four original proprietors came from Farmington. Farmington itself was settled by people from Hartford,
and only five years later than that town, or in 1640. The settlement of Waterbury was projected in 1674, but the breaking out of King
Philip's war in 1675 delayed the setdement until 1678, though a iew temporary huts were erected the previous year (for the use of
surveying parties), on the meadows, opposite the mouth of Sled Hall Brook, a small stream that flows into the Naugatuck a few rods
south of the residence of A. B. Wilson. The first permanent residences were erected on the Woodbury road, what is now West Main
Street, and between the east end of the Park and Willow Street. The Park was then, and even within the memory of persons now
living, a swamp and frog pond, filled with mud and cat-tail flags. It is a litde singular that two such notable cities as Waterbury and
Boston should both have had this peculiar original feature, and that both should have turned it to the same use, making it a " thing of
beauty and a joy forever." But, pleasantry aside, the little Park is very beautiful, and not only the pride of our citizens but the ad-
miration of visitors.
Waterbury bore, till its incorporation in 1686, the Indian name of this region, — Mattatuck, — the place without wood or the badly
wooded place. It is to be regretted that the fashion of those days was to discard the expressive and generally euphonious names
which the Indians had given to our hills, valleys and streams, substituting for them the names that were familiar to them in the old
world, but which were, too often, absurd misnomers. "Waterbury," it is true, fits well enough the place where the principal Ijranches
of the Naugatuck come together, and where " rivulets, ponds, swamps, boggy meadows and wet lands " were prominent natural features.
But Mattatuck is also descriptive, and it perpetuates a fact in regard to the physical features of the place that civilization has
forever hidden from view. Who, looking upon the alluvion that borders the Naugatuck, would imagine that it is, to-day, essentially
what it was when the first settlers looked upon it? Even the grass — true "prairie grass" — that grows in its uncultivated places is the
same, no doubt, that covered it before the white man came.
Here, as well as anywhere, may be mentioned some of the physical features of the region and some of the changes they have
undergone. The surrounding hills were then densely wooded, and though a very considerable portion of the surface is now covered
with trees, not an acre, perhaps not a single tree, of the original forest remains. Traces of what the geologists call the " Ice Period "
existed in the low lands, in the shape of several "terminal moraines" or rounded sand hills, and in sandy deposits along the sides
of the valley.
(4)
The beautiful Riverside Cemetery is a deposit of the latter class, and the hill, as yet intact, that lies in the meadows west of the
Waterbury Brass Mill, Spencer Hill, Benedict Hill or Pine Hill where the Waterbury Watch Factory now stands, the hill between the
Waterbury Brass Mill and the residence of R. K. Brown, Esq., the hill that stood where the buildings of the Plume and Atwood Man-
ufacturing Company now stand, the site of the High School Building, and others either wholly or in part removed, are of the first
class. Prindle Hill and the site of Rose Hill Cottage may be added to the list, and many will remember that a sand hill once stood
where Dr. North's residence now stands, and that it was used in filling up the swamp where the Park now is, and the low level of
Exchange Place and its neighborhood.
Even that rocky hill in the eastern part of the city, whose name, Abrigador (or Abrigado), is the despair of our local philolo-
gists, is changed, save that its summit still wears a tuft of stinted white pines, the same it has worn since the memory of man.
These ancient pines stand like a few bedraggled feathers in the head-dress of an Indian chief in very reduced circumstances. It is to be
hoped that they may long be spared, for what would Waterbury be without its Abrigador, and what the Abrigador without its pines.
Bronson's map of Ancient Waterbury (see Hist. Waterbury, p. i6) locates the residences of eleven of the original proprietors
on the north side of West Main Street, seven on the south side and seven others on the east side of North Main and Bank or South
Main Streets. The others were not far from these, but later comers were obliged to locate farther from the centre of the village ;
several near the junction of East Main and Cole Streets. This map gives the location of forty-one dwellings. These were "rude log
huts," "good and substantial dwellings," " at least eighteen feet in length and sixteen feet wide, and nine feet between joynts," "with a
good chimly."
The author of the " History of Waterbury " intimates that these rude log huts were several degrees below his ideal of a comfortable
home, but the pioneer experience of the writer of this sketch warrants him in saying that log houses are not necessarily uncom-
fortable, but that on the other hand, they are not only very comfortable, but very pleasant dwellings. The degree of comfort, re-
finement and "elegance" with which they are fitted up depends, as in more pretentious dwellings, upon the taste and refinement of
the occupants. Pioneer life has, everywhere, its hardships, but being obliged to live in a log house should not be accounted one of them.
The growth of Waterbury was for many years exceedingly slow ; indeed, it is nearly certain that thirty-five years after the settle-
ment was begun there were hardly more inhabitants than at first. The reasons for this were that the Committee sent by the State to
examine and report upon the territory, had declared that it might give comfortable support to " thirty families." This report would
of course discourage rnore than a very limited immigration, and, too, there were in the time named two serious calamities that had a
very discouraging effect. The first was the great flood that in 169 1 almost ruined the alluvial lands on which the people depended for
their support. This was followed in 1712 by a fearful epidemic that attacked nearly all the inhabitants, and that carried off, in the
space of ten months, thirty out of a population of not more than two hundred.
(5)
In these days, when the behef in the direct visitation of God in the evils that overtake us has given place to an investigating
spirit that seeks for a more immediate cause, and that so often finds the true cause to lie in a neglect or direct violation of natural rather
than spiritual laws, we may well inquire whether the great epidemic did not owe its origin to the unhealthy location of the little village —
to the miasm of the cat-tail swarnp. Possibly Waterbury would have escaped this "visitation" had it been planted, as originally in-
tended, on the high land west of the river, on the Old Town Plat.
But if the settlement had been begun on the hill, woukl the Waterbury of to-day ever have had an existence? Would it ever
have exceeded the other hill-top villages around it? The true history of Waterbury begins with the history of its manufacturing, for
as an agricultural district it never achieved much success.
The first use that was made of the abundant water-power was for the grist-mill erected on Mad river, on the present site of
the Scovill Manufacturing Works, in the year 1680. The year before, the State Committee had recommended that such a mill should
be built, and had even granted an extra thirty acres of land to any person who would build and maintain a mill for the use of the
inhabitants. Mr. Stephen Hopkins, of Hartford, built a mill on the site named, which continued to be used until about 1S40, or
160 years; and a run of stone remained there several years later. Up to the time this mill was built the milling for the colony
was done at Farmington. The history of the old mill and its grants of land as given in the "History of Waterbury" is very inter-
esting, but too long to be given here.
At an early period a fiilling-mill was built at Judd's Meadow, now Naugatuck, and later there was one on Great Brook, not far
from where the Waterbury Clock Factory now stands. Earlier, probably, than either of these, there was a saw-mill on Great Brook.
Dr. Bronson when a young man sawed logs in a mill that stood on this stream.
The manufacture of wooden clocks was begun in 1790 by James Harrison. They were made entirely by hand, and seem to
have been sold at a very reasonable price. The first three brought, respectively, three pounds twelve shillings for the first, and four
pounds each for the second and third. These clocks were made in the lower room of the "Academy Building." David Hoadley and
Lemuel Porter were in his employment. Mr. Harrison removed his business to a little shop that stood on Little Brook, at the foot of
Cooke Street, where Ell's Block now stands. The brook still flows in its original channel direcdy under this building. At this place
water-power was applied to manufacturing ; its first application beyond that of sawing logs, grinding grain and fulling cloth, if Dr. Bronson
is correct. This was about the year 1800 ; but after a few years the business was removed to the lower grist-mill on Mad river, where
better water-power was available. About 1810 Mark Leavenworth, Wm. K. Lamson and Anson Sperry began the manufacture of
wooden clocks on Great Brook, near the junction of North Main and Cherry Streets.
(6)
The wooden clocks of those days were reliable time-keepers, quite equal to the brass clocks of our day. Since the old furni-
ture craze began, a few years ago, many an old wooden clock has been taken from its long rest in the garret and reinstated in the " best
room," where it is doing good service as a timepiece, and where it is, as in the olden time, the pride of its owner.
The late Chauncey Jerome claimed to have been one of the leading men in the development of the clock-making industry in
Connecticut, and among other things, that he was the inventor of the brass clocks that fifty years ago came into market and soon sup-
planted the wooden clocks. The idea of a clock movement made of brass came to him, he writes, one night while staying at his
hotel in Richmond, Va., when he was travelling in the South on business. That an ingenious and inquisitive Yankee clockmaker
should travel in the Middle and Southern States without discovering one of the old, imported, brass movement clocks, that were not
by any means rare, and had been in the country long before his time, seems not a little strange, to say the least. The Waterbury
Clock Company was organized in 1857, and at the present time is among the largest concerns of the kind in the country.
The history of early clock-making in Waterbury would be incomplete if it contained no reference to the part taken in it by
Eli Terry and his sons. Mr. Terry came to Northbury, then a part of Waterbury, in the year 1793. (Northbury was incorporated as
the town of Plymouth two years later, in 1795.) He began clock- making in a small way the same year, in a little shop that stood half
a mile west of the church on Plymouth Hill . The shop stood on a small brook that furnished water-power a part of the year, but he
does not appear to have used this power for several years. The demand for clocks increasing, he built machinery, applied the water-
power, and " began making clocks by the thousand." His business still increasing, and the water-power proving insufficient for his work,
he sold the whole to Heman Clark, an apprentice, and bought the water-power and buildings of Calvin Hoadley, on Hancock Brook, two
miles above Waterville. The place is still known as "Hoadley's." Beginning work here in 1807, Mr. Terry contracted to make four
thousand clocks in the next three years. He filled the contract, and in 1810 sold the manufactory to Seth Thomas and Silas Hoadley.
It was in this factory that A. Bronson Alcott, the Concord philosopher, served a twelve months' apprenticeship at clock-making.
In his poem, " New Connecticut," he refers to his labors here. It is plain that the "factory's hum" was not music to his philosophic
soul, and that the future apostle of transcendentalism found no inspiration in the application of force to matter as seen in the
clock-shop.
" Here in the shop, above the flume and sand,
While whir the forces of mechanic fate,
Busied aloft, where the red clock-shops stand,
His fingers guide Time's o'er the dial plate.
" Meantime he counts each hapless morn and night,
The while his six days' wages here he earns,
Till up the ivied gorge, for home delight,
By Saturday evening's moonlight he returns."
(7")
In a note he says : " My work at the factory consisted of fitting parts and putting together. In itself it was neither liard nor
disagreeable. But it left me less of the freedom for reading and study with which I had been favored hitherto ; and after urgent per-
suasion on my part, I was permitted to return and attend school."
The forests of Waterbury furnished most excellent materials for the wooden clocks of those days. The wheels and pinions
were made from the "ivy," or laurel {Kn/mia latlfolia)^ always abundant, but then of larger growth than is often met with now. The
fine, hard and close grain of this wood fitted it admirably for clock work, and clocks made of it, that have been running for three-
quarters of a centui'y, show very little wear.
Flax was an important farm product in those days, and the family linen was not only raised on tlie farm, but was manu-
factured in the home of the farmer. The making of linen clock cord formed, for a time, quite an industry in this neighborhood, and
not many years ago the remains of a rope-walk, where this cord was made, were still visible in the west part of Wolcott, a few rods
from the spot where A. B. Alcott was born. But it was button-making, rather than the making of wooden clocks, that was the germ
of the present great manufacturing interests of Waterbury. Dr. Bronson enumerates thirty-four manufacturing establishments in
Waterbury in 1858, and of these ten are wholly or in part devoted to the manufacture of buttons. As early as 1750 Joseph Hopkins,
who had learned the trade of a silversmith in Hartford, made silver and silver-plated buttons in Waterbury.
Late in the last century, three brothers, Henry, Silas and Samuel Grilley, made buttons in that part of the town known as
Bunker Hill. The buttons were of pewter and were cast in moulds. Henry had learned the trade of an Englishman in Boston, Mass.,
but he was not alone in the trade, as buttons of the same kind were made, at this time, at Meriden, at Cheshire and at Southington in
this State, and in Massachusetts. About 1800, the Grilleys greatly improved the pewter button by substituting iron wire eyes for the
cast pewter ones heretofore made. A still greater improvement was made in 1802, when they began the manufacture of buttons from
rolled brass. The amount of brass usee} for this purpose at this time must have been very small, for the ingots were taken to the iron
rolling-mill, then in operation in Bradleyville in the town of Litchfield, to be " broken down." The finishing was done in Waterbury
between two steel rolls, two inches in diameter, driven by horse-power. This was the beginning of the vast business of rolling brass^
copper and German silver now carried on in this place. In 1802 Silas Grilley entered into partnership with Abel and Levi Porter and
Daniel Clark for the manufacture of brass buttons. Their factory stood near the corner of Meadow and South Main Streets. In 1808
David Hayden became a member of the firm, and a new factory was built on Mad river near the grist-mill. The site is now covered
by the buildings of the Scovill ]\Lanufatturing Company. In iSii this firm was dissolved and a new one was formed. The members
of the new firm were Frederick Leavenworth, David Hayden and James M. L. Scovill.
(S)
The old-fashioned brass button was a durable article, made to last, and, as it has proved, to outlast the fashions of its time.
But though they never wore out, they are never seen now except in the garret wardrobe, or on the antiquated coat of some really old-
fashioned person who still resists the tide of change. Some of us can remember a blue broadcloth suit with buttons that shone like
gold. The suit grew old and faded, but the brightness of the buttons could at any time be restored by a little rubbing up with powdered
chalk. They were often plated with gold, but the process was a costly one compared with the modern methods. We are told that three
dollars' worth of gold was sometimes used to plate a single dozen of buttons. Solid gold buttons were used by those who could afford
to have them. When, in 1824, General Lafayette made his last visit to this country and was almost overwhelmed by the gratitude
of the people he had aided in their struggle for liberty, when the nation voted him §200,000 in money and a township of land, and
when individuals showered upon him numberless tokens of regard and respect, the last-named firm of button-makers made and pre-
sented to him a set of gold buttons. The three members of the firm each reserved for himself a sample button of this set. Two of
these were lost long ago, but the third is still in existence and is in the possession of a lineal descendant of one of the firm, Hon.
Elisha Leavenworth of this city. The die used in making these buttons is now in the possession of the Scovill Manufacturin'^ Com-
pany. This company made fac-similes of the Lafayette buttons with this die and presented them to the French Commissioners
who represented that government at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876.
Brass is still used for button-making to some extent, but a great variety of other substances has largely taken its place. Glass,
mother-of-pearl, vegetable ivory, hard rubber, papier-mache, bone, tin and cloth are some of the materials now used. But military
buttons and those used on the uniforms of most civic societies are still made of brass, and, occasionally, fashion demands that her
votaries shall use them in trimming costumes. The vast demand for military buttons incident to the outfitting of our volunteer soldiery
in the Civil War was promptly met by our manufacturers, and the rapidity with which buttons and other materials made of brass were
furnished almost exceeds belief
The late Edward Robinson is said to have introduced the manufacture of cloth buttons, and for a time he had this branch of
the business wholly in his own hands and made much money, but others engaging in it, competition lowered the price, and it ceased to
be very profitable. I have since learned that cloth buttons were made in Waterljury, by Daniel Hayden and others, some years before
Mr. Robinson began the business. But it still forms a not unimportant branch of the button business.
It would have been remarkable prescience that could have seen in the little two-inch rolls driven by horse-power, and used
to finish the brass plate for the early button-makers, the real foundation of the large manufacturing business of the Waterbury of to-day.
The manifold uses to which sheet brass came gradually to be applied created a demand for it far beyond the amount required for button-
making. We still call the great establishments where sheet brass, tubing and wire are made, "Rolling-Mills," but a list of all the articles
that each one of these mills make out of the brass and German silver they produce, would be too long to enumerate. For many years
(9)
vast amounts of copper and copper-alloyed coins have been made in these mills for the Central and South American countries.
They are finished here, but our own government stamps at the mint the blanks for considerable quantities of our five-cent " nickels,"
that are furnished by our mills.
With the jilates of the manufacturing establishments, will be found statements of the capital invested, the hands employed, the
principal articles made, and other interesting facts that need not here be told. It is enough to say that every conceivable use to which
brass and German silver can be put, is included in the list of our manufactured articles ; that Waterbury has long been the point
towards which every inventor with a "notion" in his head, that would reciuire l>rass or German silver in the manufacture, has turned,
and that large establishments are wholly devoted to the "notion" business.
Fortunately for Waterbury, the founders of its business interests were just and fair-minded men. Laborers themselves, they
always respected the rights of the laborer, and mutual good feeling has always existed between employer and employed. Not once has
the current of business been interrupted by a "strike" in any of the factories, and only once has a strike occurred in any branch of
business in Waterbury. The comfortable and even elegant homes of the workingmen not only give evidence of their thrift, but of
their confidence in the permanence of the existing relations with their employers. The history of the silver-plating business, begun
by the Rogers and Brothers Company, of watch-making, and of many other important inanufactures, would form interesting chapters
in the history of Waterbury, but cannot be given in this brief sketch.
The original articles framed by the "comite" (a committee appointed by the State) for the government of the colony con-
tained no provision whatever for the support of the church or for the education of the people. It is true that the committee reserved
to itself the right to choose two or three large and valuable allotments of the colonists' territory, and such were made, but for what use
mention is nowhere made, and this omission is remarkable. The explanation seems to be, that the importance of religion and edu-
cation in a community was so impressed on the minds of the colonists, that they felt that the reservations made by the committee
could be for no other purpose than the support of these institutions. The committee was acting for the State, and at this time the State
exercised control in religious as well as educational matters. It is certain, however, that the income received from the " great lots,"
as they came to be called, and from several other parcels of land that the colonists "set out" in later divisions of the territory, was
devoted to the support of the church and the school.
While the settlers dwelt mainly within the present limits of the town, the income received from these lands was expended to
the satisfaction of all concerned ; but when settlements had been made at Judd's Meadow (Naugatuck), at Westbury (Watertown) and
at Northbury (Plymouth), and these asked for a share of the money, it was refused, and from this time forward, for many years, this
matter produced much quarrelling and hard feeling. When at length some of the land was sold (which the settlers seem to have had
no legal right to do), there were more disputes over the division of the money received for it. The story of the use, the abuse, and the
(lO)
final loss to the town of all this property, as it is gathered from various sources by Dr. Bronson, is interesting and instructive.
All that remains of it that is still devoted to the original object is a bit of land lying between Cedar Street and the New England
Railroad, and the Parsonage of the First Congregational Church on Leavenworth Street, this last having been purchased with the
money paid by the Railroad Company for that part of the Cedar Street lot which it took by the authority granted it in its charter.
Although this early attempt by the State to give support to the church and the schools was not, after a time, satisfactory, and at
length failed locally, it is, as regards the school system, its main reliance in a large part of the country to-day. If the church was a
unit, as it was at the time of which we write, there would be less objection than now exists for direct or indirect support by the State.
But, with all the vast number of sects that divide the religious world, such support would be impossible. There are serious objections
to State support of the schools, but they do not lie in this direction, and these are, at present, outweighed by the advantages of such
support.
The first record of a school in Waterbury was in the winter of 169S. A committee was appointed to "hyre a scoal master
for three moneths if they can." The school lands were rented and the money used to pay the teachers. In 1706 the committee
was instructed to hire "a scoal master for three moneths and a scoal dame for ye sum-r as fare as the scool money will go." In 1707
a committee was appointed " to se after the bulding a scool hous which the town by uoat pased to be bult and the sd hous is to be
bult fourteen foot wide and sixteen in length." This structure was long in building, for in 1720 a "comety was chosan to see that the
scol hous be dun and repared." The qualifications necessary to teach school were, that the schoolmaster be able to instruct in " wrighting
and reeding." Spelling was taught, if at all, by some "go as you please," phonetic method. The word "school" is spelled in these
records in no less than five brief and original ways, viz. : scoal, scool, scoull, scol and scoll. How well reading was taught we cannot
say, but that penmanship was well taught the manuscripts of all sorts that have come down to us abundanUy show. Many volumes
of the Town Records are beautifully written. In 1743 a new schoolhouse was built on the site of the old one. In 1784-5 the first
"Academy" was erected. It stood on the green nearly opposite where the City Hall now stands.
The Academy had two departments, one for boys and one for girls. The boys' school was first taught by David Hale, a
brother of Capt. Nathan Hale of Revolutionary memory, and among his pupils were Jeremiah Day, President of Yale College for
many years, and the late Bennet Bronson. The Academy building was of wood and two stories high. It had a bell, the first in the
town. The school ran down and after a time was discontinued, and the building removed to a lot on West Main Street just where Cen-
tral Avenue now joins that street. It was cut down to one story and still used for school purposes, and became the schoolhouse of the
"West Centre" District ; a common school being taught in one room and, occasionally, a private school in the other. About 1835 it
ceased to be used for schools and was fitted up for a dwelling, and many will remember the long, low, white dwelling, that stood on a
brick basement, just west of R. E. Hitchcock's residence, — the old Academy. It was removed at the time the Central Avenue was laid
Cn)
out, and now stands in llic rear of the Israel Holmes place on West Main Street. The bell was placed on the New Academy, a stone
building built about 1S25 on the ground where the City Hall now stands. It was broken up and recast and was finally placed on
the High School building, and was destroyed when that building was burned in 1870.
To-day the public schools of Waterbury employ eighty-eight teachers, and the buildings are models of their kind. The expense
last year, including buildings and repairs, was over §90,000. In point of excellence, the schools are among the best in the State.
Besides the public schools, there are several other institutions that are worthy of mention.
Saint Margaret's School, a young ladies' seminary, the Diocesan School of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Connecti-
cut, was founded in 1874. It has always been in charge of that noted instructor, Rev. Francis T. Russell. Its reputation is such that
it is always full, and its jjupils are from nearly every State in the Union.
The Hillside Avenue School, under the management of Miss Mary Abbott, a graduate of Vassar College, was opened in 1885.
As a teacher. Miss Abbott lias few superiors, and her school is fast gaining the support it so well desen-es.
The school in charge of the Sisters of the Notre Dame Convent is well supported, and meets, no doubt, the wants of such as
desire a thorough instruction in the Catholic faith with secular studies. There are several smaller private schools.
The Waterbury High School has been in charge of M. S. Crosby, A. M., for the last seventeen years. Prof. Crosby is also
superintendent of the schools in the Center District, and it is largely owing to his wise supervision and care that our schools and
everything pertaining to them are in such excellent condition. It is not to utter praise of schools or of individuals, well merited as it
certainly is, that the above has been written, but that the truth regarding educational matters may be made known, and that we may
contrast the Waterbury of a hundred and fifty years ago with the Waterbury of to-day. The school privileges of the boy or girl
that was taught " reeding and wrighting," three months in a year, in a poor, uncomfortable building, with no furniture save a bench
and a desk, and the boys and girls of to-day, in schoolrooms perfect in every appointment, and with everything — trained teachers,
excellent text-books, and apparatus of all sorts — to aid them in getting an education.
It need hardly be stated that the first settlements in Connecticut were church societies, — bodies having a common religious
belief, — that they were Congregationalists, and that in all the administration of affairs the paramount thought was to establish and
maintain a Congregational Church. The religious liberty, the ready and willing toleration of each religious sect by every other, was
not thought of; and why should it be, for were they not all of one faith? If they were taxed to build churches and to pay church
expenses, it was their own church. So long as this state of things continued everything went on smoothly, but when, at length, those
of other sects came in, the case was changed. At first a simple protest against paying to support a religion that they did not believe
was heard ; then, when the number of protestants had increased, a demand for a share of the money raised for religious purposes
was made. After long contention the original society, the Congregational, rather than dissolve the union between church and state,
(12)
and leave the support of each sect to itself, made a remarkable compromise. They left it to each individual tax-payer to say on his
assessment blank to what sect his tax for religious purposes should be given. So late as 1820 this law was in force. There lies before
me a statement of the taxable property of one of the manufacturing establishments of that time, to which the following direction is
appended : " One third of the tax to be given to the sect known as Believers in the Restoration. One third to the Presbyterians.
One third to the Episcopalians." This indicates that the members of the business firm were not all of "one faith."
No attempt is here made to write a history of the several church organizations in Waterbury. Little more can be done in this
place than to give the date of their origin, and such statistics as shall serve to show their present standing. It seems, however, that a
brief notice of the various church edifices that have been built properly finds a place in this short historical sketch.
Most of the first settlers were members of Mr. Samuel Hopkin's church in Farmington. They were all church-goers, and to be
deprived of their former " meeting privileges " was one of their sorest trials. As soon as practicable, they invited a minister to come
and settle among them ; and they offered very generous inducements, — certainly the best they had to offer. These were a salary (large,
considering the circumstances of the people), various pieces of land (these to be held in his own right), and the use of the minister's
house. As has already been stated, the income from the "great lots " and some other pieces of land were devoted to the support of
the church and the schools. When, in 1 740, the Rev. Mark Leavenworth accepted a call to become the minister, he received towards his
settlement no less than thirteen pieces of land, from as many members of the church society. The aggregate of these gifts was
eighty-two acres, all of which was conveyed to him by deed. His salary, beginning with ;^i5o, was gradually increased to ^500, a
salary which may seem large until we learn that, by the depreciation of the paper money of the time, a bushel of wheat cost ;£i iSx.
Reduced to our standard of value, he received about S250 a year.
The first, second and third meeting-houses of the Congregational Church stood on the east end of the Green. The fourth stood
where the present church building stands, and this is the fifth. In 1691, the people petitioned the General Court "for further encour-
agement to build God's house — the encouragement which we doe particularly petition for is that our Publique rates may be given to
us for the four next ensuing years." The '•encouragement" does not seem to have been granted. The meeting-house was built
without it and was in use three years later, and is thus described by Dr. Bronson : "It was a small building, without glass or gallery,
suited to the humble circumstances of its projectors. It had doors upon the east, west and south sides — three in all." As means in-
creased some changes were made, a gallery was added, glass windows put in, and other improvements made ; all of which were paid
for by special and heavy taxes. The colony outgrew this building at length, and, in 1723, a vote was passed to build a new meeting-
house. The work was begun soon after, but was not completed until about 1730. As the new house was forty by fifty feet, we must
conclude that the first was considerably smaller. It was built close to the old one and was used for church purposes for more than
sixty years. In January, 1795, ^^^ society again voted to build a meeting-house, near the old one. It was to be forty-two by sixty
(«3)
feet. William Leavenworth contracted to build it for ^850. It had a steeple, and not long after it was finished a bell was procured, —
the first church bell in the town. The society generously voted that the Episcopal society might have the use of this bell on "all proper
occasions." For some reason it was decided to remove the building, probably because it stood in the most public place in the
town. Mr. Scovill gave for the new site the land where the Second Congregational Church now stands. The time of the removal I
have not ascertained. It was used as a meeting-house until the completion of the fourth building, which stood on the site of the present
brick edifice. It was then purchased by Mr. Scovill, who fitted it up for offices and with a hall for public meetings. He
named it "Gothic Hall," a name that has clung to it through all the changes that it has since undergone. When, in 1852, the Second
Congregational Church purchased this site for their church edifice, the old hall wag removed to the rear of the lot ; and was afterwards
sold to the late F. L. Allen, who used it for a lime as a hardware storehouse. It has since been sold, and a part of it is at present used
as a liquor saloon. The fourth building did not long meet the wants of the society, for, in 1872, the new building was erected. It is
a fine specimen of church architecture, as the illustration shows.
The Second Congregational Church was organized in 1852 with fifty members, and their church was built in 1855. Its steeple,
the tallest in the State, and that of St. John's Church were blown down in a terrible wind storm in Febniary, 1857. Owing to the
damage done to the walls at that time, the steeple on the first has never been replaced.
The organization of the church in Waterbury — the First Congregational Church — is supposed to have been in the year 1691,
though there are some facts that point to an earlier date. But whatever the date may have been, it is certain that it was for a long
time the only religious society in the town, and when branch societies were established at Westbury, Northbury, Salem and other
points, they were of the same faith. All were Congregationalists, and they or their fathers had come across the sea to establish
" A church without a bishop,
A state without a king,"
and all in-comers of a different faith mef with a cool reception. It is stated that James Brown, who came from West Haven in 1722,
was the first Churchman that settled in Waterbury. He was nicknamed Bishop Brown, and this will express the contempt and dislike
felt for all Churchmen by the Congregationalists at that time. More Churchinen came, and in 1737 divine service was performed for
the first time in Waterbury "according to the rites of the Church." In 1740 the Churchmen remonstrated against paying for the sup-
port of Rev. Mr. Southmayd, the Congregationalist minister, and in 1742 they were so strong as to resolve to build a house of worship
for themselves. This resolution was finally carried into effect, though the house seems to have been not quite completed as late as
1747. In 1743 the town generously voted to allow the Churchinen to draw from its treasury for church building purposes the sum of
twelve pounds. About this time the Churchmen petitioned the General Court for "parish privileges," but the petition was not granted.
('4)
This first church edifice was called the Church of St. James. It stood on the corner of West Main and North Willow Streets, where
Mr. Charles Mitchell's residence now stands. The doorstep of this church, a large unhewn stone, is to be seen to-day at the west door
of the Judge Kingsbury house. Time has changed its place, from the front door of a church to the back door of a dwelling house, but
not its use, — it is a doorstep still.
A new church edifice was completed in October, 1797, and dedicated as St. John's Church November i of that year. It stood
at the west end of the Park, not far from the present St. John's Church. A new church edifice was finished and dedicated in the year
1848. The dedication was on the 12th of January. It was built of stone and was one of the finest churches in the State. The old
church was sold to the Catholics. St. John's Church was destroyed by fire on the night of December 24, 1S68. It was rebuilt on
the same foundations in the year 1870, and the spire, which in the other building was of wood, was built entirely of stone.
The Baptists of Waterbury erected their first house of worship about the year 181 7, in the northeastern part of the town. In
1835 they built the church on South Main Street, until recently occupied by them. When built the entrance to this building was on
South Main Street, but about 1859 or i860 the building was extended to Bank Street, and the entrance changed to that street. It has,
since the erection of the fine church on Grand Street, been fitted up for stores, offices and a Music Hall. The church on Grand
Street was built in 1882.
The Methodists, who for a long time were few in numbers, held their meetings in private houses and schoolhouses. Later
they held meetings in the Franklin House and in the Academy. In 1832 they erected their first church building, on the corner of
Union and Scovill Streets, where it still stands, though it ceased to be used for church purposes in 1854, when the new brick church
on the comer of East Main Street and Phoeni.x Avenue was completed. This last building gave place to the building on the corner of
North Main Street and Abbott Avenue, in 1S77, and was sold to the Catholics, who used it for lecture room and Sunday school
purposes. Lately it has been sold, and is now being torn down to give place to a building better suited for business purposes in the
busy center of trade. The present church building cost about §70,000 and is constructed with special reference to the most modern
uses of such buildings. Its lecture room and the rooms for the use of Sabbath school classes are models of comfort and convenience.
Trinity Church was organized in 1877. Its fine stone church edifice on Prospect Street was built in 18S3. The history of this,
the youngest of our church organizations, offers nothing that is not familiar to every one.
There were few Catholics in Waterbury previous to 1835. In that year church service began to be held in the house of Michael
Nevill, the first Catholic settled in the town. This continued for eight years. Then for a year services were held in the Gaylord Plain
schoolhouse. This small building becoming too small, Washington Hall was hired. In 1847 'he old Episcopal Church building was
purchased, as above stated, and an attempt was made to remove it to some point in the eastern part of the city. The hill at the
point where Elm Street crosses East Main was much steeper then than now, and proved an obstacle that the movers could not
(15)
overcome. A small piece of land was purchased at the foot of the hill, opposite where the Church of the Immaculate Conception
now stands, and the old church was placed upon it. It was used for church purposes until the last named church was built, in 1858.
Soon after it ceased to be used for church purposes, it was rented by the Center School District and transformed into a schoolhouse.
It has been used for school purposes until the beginning of the present school year.
The Church of the Immaculate Conceiition was built in the year 1858. Large as it was, it was soon found to be too small to
accommodate all those of the Catholic faith, and the old parish has within a few years been divided into three. — St. Patrick's on the
west side of the river, and St. .Vnn's in the eastern part of the city. These last have each a large church edifice in process of con-
struction. There is still another church being built, — one for the French residents who are of the Catholic faith. .At present these
last hold their religious services in the little church that was built a few years ago by the Universalist Society, — an organization that
still e.xists, but that has not for several years had a pastor or maintained religious services.
The religious history of any New England town cannot fail to be very interesting, and that of Waterbury is remarkably so, but
not even a brief outline of it can be gi\en here.
The historical sketch of the Waterbury banks given below is furnished by the Hon. Frederick J. Kingsbury, president of the
Citizens' National Bank.
Previous to the establishment of the AVaterbury Bank the banking business of Waterbury was transacted in New Haven, Hart-
ford, Litchfield, Meriden and Middletown. Deiwsits were sent by stage drivers and post riders, and by chance opportunities that
offered from time to time. There were no weekly or monthly jiayments of wages in the factories. A running account was kept with
each workman. There was usually a store connected with the factory, where the workman bought what he needed, and when he
wanted money he asked for it. .\ccounts were settled once a year, but not usually closed. The Ijalance, whichever way it might
stand, was carried on to a new account.
The Waterbury Bank was chartered in 1848 with a capital of $200,000, and was a great convenience in the transaction of busi-
ness. The manufacturers soon gave up their stores and began to pay their workmen at stated intervals, — usually of one month.
Bennet Bronson was the first president and Dyer .Ames, Jr., the first cashier. The bills were not made payable to bearer, as now, but
to some individual, or bearer, and the name of the individual and the date were filled in with a pen. The price paid for filling in was
$1.25 per one hundred sheets, or four hundred bills, and the work was usually done outside the bank. Many of the early bills were
filled out by Mr. .Abram Ives, who was very glad to write eight hundred names and eight hundred dates and two thousand figures for
S1.25. I suppose our young men in these days would rather ])lay tennis for nothing than be engaged in such unremunerative labor.
The capital of the bank was afterwards increased to $500,000. On the death of Judge Bronson, John P. Elton became president, and
on the resignation of Mr. Ames, Mr. A. S. Chase was appointed cashier. On Mr. Elton's death, Mr. Chase succeeded him, and Mr.
A. M. Blakesley took Mr. Chase's place as cashier.
(16)
In 1850 the Waterbury Savings Bank was established. Mr. F. J. Kingsbury, who was a member of the Legislature that year,
obtained the charter. He was appointed treasurer, and Mr. John P. Elton president. Mr. Kingsbury has held the office of treasurer
since that time. Nelson Hall, S. \V. Hall, \\'illard Spencer and C. I!. Merriman have successiv-ely held the office of president. When
the bank was established solemn people shook their heads ; the lighter-minded laughed ; some of the more sanguine said we might
live to see $400,000 deposits gathered there, though they probably did not believe what they said. The deposits are now two and a
half millions, and the Dime Savings Bank has about a million and a half more. Neady the whole of this money comes from the
earnings of the working people. The savings bank has been a very great benefit to them, and there are hundreds of comfortable
homes to-day that owe their existence to these institutions.
In 1849 and in 1850, and for a few years following, there was a sort of craze for what were called Savings Bank and Building
Associations. They sold their money to the highest bidder, getting enormous interest ; but this fact tempted them to take rather poor
security. The men who agreed to pay the high rates were unable to do so, and the result of it was much distress and considerable
loss. We had two of these institutions in Waterbury. The law under which they were created was repealed in 1858, and they were
all wound up as fast as they could be without sacrifice. The Waterbury institutions came out as well as most of them, but there was
considerable loss among the poorer class of borrowers, by being compelled to give up places on which they had paid considerable sums,
because they could not sustain the heavy rates of interest.
In 1853 the Citizens' Bank was established, under a general banking law at that time in force, with a capital of Sioo,ooo, sub-
seiiuently increased to $300,000. Abram Ives was the first president antl F. J. Kingsbury the first cashier. Mr. Ives' health soon
failed, and Mr. S. W. Hall became president. Mr. Hall retired after a few years, and Mr. Kingsbury became president, and Mr. F. L.
Curtis cashier. They still retain those offices.
In 1865 Mr. John P. Elton established a private banking-house, called The Elton Banking Company. This was organized under
the joint-stock law, and was successfully carried on, after Mr. Elton's death, by his son-in-law, Mr. C. N. Wayland. But on Mr. Way-
land's going abroad the business was discontinue',1.
The private banking-house of Brown & Parsons, now Holmes & Parsons, has taken the place of the Elton Banking Company
as the leading private bank.
The Dime Savings Bank was incorporated in 1S70. Mr. G. S. Parsons was its first treasurer, and still holds the position. The
office of president has been held successively by Elisha Leavenworth, H. C. Griggs, and H. H. Peck.
The Manufacturers' National Bank, D. B. Hamilton, president, C. R. Baldwin, cashier, capital S 100,000, was organized under
the United States Banking Law, in 1880.
The Fourth National Bank of Waterbury, E. T. Turner, president, B. G. Bryan, cashier, was organized under the Uniteil States
Banking Law, in 1887.
(17)
Waterbury was, for a long time, a frontier town and exposed to the attacks of Indians, and the first setders were, necessarily,
trained in the art of defensive warfare. They devoted six days each year to mihtary exercises, and training days were the red-letter
days of the calendar, and military titles, from corporal to ( Dioncl. were coveted, antl were never omitted when the hearer was spoken
of or addressed. The early annals of Waterbury are full of votes and resolutions for the defence of the colonists against their Indian
enemies. For many years the colonial government ordered that scouts or sentries should be constantly on duty to watch the move-
ments of the Indians and give notice in case of their hostile a[)proa( h. It is true that no general attack was ever made, no doubt
because of the vigilance of the colonists. Newel's Hill, since known as Spencer Hill, and now (piite removed, was one of the sentry
posts, and another was the high land in '■ Valley Park" overlooking the " Meadows."
Each town was ordered by the State to keejj on hand military stores to the extent of one barrel of good powder, two hundred
weight of bullets, and three iiundred flints, for every sixty listed soldiers, and after that jjroportion. From time to time, as Indian
attacks seemed imminent, various houses were fortified by stockades. A building surrounded liy a line of tree trunks planted side by
side firmly in the ground afforded some security against the attack of Indians, and most of the " forts " of the time were of this
character.
At one time the house of '■ Fnsign " Stanley was fortified ; at another that of Rew Mr. Southniayd. The first stood where
Miss Martha Kendrick's residence now is ; the last on the corner of West Main and South Willow Streets, near where Mr. R. K. Brown
now lives. At one time the " General Court " ordered that two of the houses in Waterbury should l)e fortified, and the inhabitants
went even beyond the order and fortified three. For its prompt response to the order of the Court the town received, on one
occasion, fifteen pounds in money. \\'hen, in 1709, the New England colonies fitted out a military expedition to Canada, Waterbury
furnished its quota of four, though the whole numljer of families in the town did not exceed thirty-three.
For a number of years preceding the breaking out of the war of the Revolution the population had increased very rapidly, and
we find that the number of soldiers furnished during that struggle was not less than two hundred and thirty-six, and Dr. Bronson
remarks that his list is far from complete;
I have no particulars of the part the town had in the war of 181 2, but more than one of the old inhabitants has related to me
the particulars of his hurried mart:h to the defence of New London.
The war of the Rebellion is of too recent date to require extended notice in this sketch. It is enough to say that Waterbury
prompUy met all the demands naade tipon her for men and means in this great struggle, and that more than nine hundred of her sons
enlisted in the Union army.
About 1S50 Dr. Bronson published a history of Waterbury, — a large octavo volume, — fnll of interesting historical facts, but
lacking one essential feature of a work of the kind. The index is little better than none at all. It is hardly necessary to say how
(IS)
much of the material of this sketch has been gathered from Dr. Bronsjii's history. Of writings, puhUshed and unpubhshed, that con-
tain historical matter relating to Waterbury, may be mentioned : Barl^er's Historical Collections ; Chauncey Jerome's History of Clock-
making, an autobiography; The History of Clock-making, by the late Henry Terry; Representatives of New England, by J. D.
Van-Slyck ; The Waterbury American, whose pages, especially the earlier volumes, are filled, not only with a record of the time, but
with much relating to the early history of the place. Rev. Dr. Anderson, jiastor of the First Congregational Church, has, in his History
of the Soldiers' Monument, made a valuable contribution to the history of the town. Dr. .\nderson has studied the history of the
churches in Waterbury most thoroughly, and it is to be hoped that the results of his investigations w-ill appear in the new history of
the town now being written.
Mr. S. M. Judd has not, to our knowledge, published historical papers, l)ut he has rescued from oblivion, and has in manu-
script, a multitude of facts relating to our early history. In 1876 he began and completed an accurate census of the town and city on
the plan of the general census of the United States. He wrote with his own hand two copies of this work, — a heavy folio volume.
These are now owned by the Bronson Library. He has quite recently finished a history of the Masonic organizations in the town. Of
this he has also made two copies, one of which is kept in the Bronson Library. He has also in manuscript a list of all the persons
interred in each of the several burial-grounds in the town (except Riverside Cemetery and St. Joseph's Cemetery, both of which
have been opened since 1850), together with a plan of the burying-ground on Grand Street, giving the location of all the graves
that can be found there. Mr. Judd's list gives the name of each person, date of birth and time of death. This valualile manuscript
is in the keeping of the library. A historical sketch of Riverside Cemetery is in preparation by the members of the Riverside
Cemetery Association.
It is now generally known that the Hon. F. J. Kingsbury, Dr. .\nderson. Miss Sarah J. Prichard and others are writing a new history
of Waterbury. The remarkable jjrogress of the city since the work of Dr. Bronson was published, and the possession of some inter-
esting facts relating to our early history that were not known to Dr. Bronson, or at least were not published by him, make a new history
desirable.
As this sketch relates chiefly to the eady history of Waterbury, and as only the founders of its industries have received atten-
tion, it seems proper here to name some of those men of early times whose more than local reputation did not rest tipon their busi-
ness enterprise. The number of young men that received a college education in those days was much larger, relatively, than it is to-
day. Of one class that graduated from Yale, a class of twenty, four, or one-filth, were from Waterbury. Most of the graduates fol-
owed one or another of the three professions, Divinity, Law or Medicine, and none so far as I can learn were "stickit" members of their
profession. Many appear to have been men of more than average ability, and the influence of a few extended much beyond their own
locahty and time. No attempt at chronological order is made in the brief notices that follow.
(19)
Lemuel Hopkins, M.D., was accounted " a physician of great skill and reputation." He was rather eccentric, even in the practice
of his profession, and stories are still told of him that show some of his peculiarities. He was the author of several satirical poems, one
of which, "an Epitaph on a patient killed by a (^uack Cancer Doctor." found a ])lace in the school readers of fifty years ago.
Rev. Tillotsun Bronson was born in 1721, and was educated at Vale. He was for .several years the editor of the Churchman's
Magazine, and also the principal of the Cheshire Academy for some time.
John Trumbull, a distinguished and popular lawyer, was born in i 750. He was the author of " IM'Fingal," a satirical poem that
attracted much attention, partly because of its literary merits, but more because the Royalists and Tories were the objects of liis satire.
Thirty editions of the poem were jjublished and it is said to be the best imitation of the great satire of Samuel Butler that has lieen
written.
John Trumbull, Lemuel Hopkins and loel Barlow wrote the .\narchiad.
These three, with David Humphrey. Timothy Dwight an<l Richard .Msop, were the leading members of a literary club known as
the Hartford Wits.
Junius Smith. LL.D., is remembered as the man through whose influence the British and American Steamship Company was
formed and transatlantic steam navigation successfully accomplished. The Sirius was the first vessel sent out by this company and
the first that ever crossed the Atlantic propelled wholly by steam power. It is a curious fact that a copy of the labored treatise of the
famous Dr. Lardner, written to prove the impossibility of crossing the .Atlantic by steam power, the first that came to this country, was
brought over by the Sirius on this her first trip.
William y\. Alcott, born in 1798, studied medicine and practised in Wolcott three years, but in 1832 engaged with William
Woodbridge in the preparation of a series of school geographies. He afterwards edited the .-Vnnals of Education, and was active in
introducing to this country the ideas and methods of certain (lerman educational reformers. Later he devoted his time almost entire-
ly to writing and lecturing on various reforms, particularly on education, moral and physical training. On these and related subjects
he wrote more than one hundred volume's.
Dr. Melines C. Leavenworth was a successful practitioner of medicine and for many years a surgeon in the regular arniv. He
served in this latter cai^acity through the Florida war, and again, when the war of the Rebellion broke out, he was api>ointed assistant
surgeon of the Twelfth Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers. He died in 1862. I'-arly in life he showed a decided taste for the study of
botany, and this became at length the all-absorbing object of his life. The camp and field gave him opportunities to gratify his passion,
and he made many discoveries of new and rare plants. In honor of his discoveries and his merits as a l)otanist the name Leaven-
ivorthii was given to a genus of plants he found in the Southern States.
Samuel Hopkins, D.I)., was born in 1721. He is known as the founder of the sect of Hopkinsians. He was a Calvinist,
(20)
though differing from his leader in some important points. He wrote and pubUshed much, but his great work, '• A System of Doctrines,"
etc., was not pubHshed until after his death. Jonathan Edwards, David Bellamy and Dr. Hopkins were contemporaries and, in their day,
the great expounders and defenders of Calvinism, and Dr. Hopkins was a worthy member of the trio. One who has studied his
character thoroughly has called him " philosopher, metaphysician and philanthrophist." He was the first man of influence in New
England that raised his voice against American slavery, and it was through his efforts that laws were passed prohibiting the importation
of slaves into New England and making free the children of slaves born after a certain date. He lived and worked on his father's farm
in W'aterbury until he was fifteen years old, and he has left on record the remarkable statement that during that time he never heard
any of his jouthful comi)anions utter an oath. He is the hero of Mrs. Stowe's novel, "The Minister's Wooing," and however founda-
tionless the story of his wooing, when over si.Kty years of age, the fair young Mary Scudder, Mrs. Stowe has made a truthful statement
of his religious life and beliefs and their influence upon his church and time.
Waterbury possesses very few old buildings. Portions of some of the older factories still remain, but these have been so built
over and added to, that they are lost in the present structures. Not one of the churches now used as a church is more than thirty
years old, and the oldest school building, with possibly one exception, is of still more recent date. The oldest dwelling-house stands
on the corner of North Willow and Johnson Streets, and is known as the Johnson house. It was built in the year 1726. It has long
since ceased to keep even the appearance of respectability, and it stands out boldly in the midst of scores of really fine residences like
some ragged vagabond, whose only claim to the toleration of the community is that he was once respectable. The Judge Kingsbury
house, on the corner of West Main and South Willow Streets, is looked upon as an old house, but it was built late in the last century ;
and the residence of the late Dr. James Brown and that of C. D. Kingsbury, Esq., were built near the beginning of the present
century. Old residents can point out many places where very ancient buildings were standing thirty years ago, but the growing city
wanted room, and the enterprise that levelled the hills to secure it has brushed them aside.
The fifty views that follow, and the historical and descriptive notes that accompany them, will illustrate the later history and
rapid growth of Waterbury.
(20
Waterbury and her Industries,
BENEDICT & BURNHAM MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
The brass rolling business commenced in this country by the Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company (or more prop-
erly by their predecessors) in the year 1825, at Waterbury, grew out of the requirements of the gilt button manufacture, in which
brass and gilding metal were used in sheets. The metal used for this purpose in the early stage of the business was copper, cut in
strips with a cold chisel from old distillery kettles or sugar pans, rolled to the required thickness in the rough rolls of an old iron-
mill. Then followed the importation of fine rolls with which were rolled the metals of their own mixture, being still largely dependent
upon such old copper, etc., as could be procured. It was not long before brass rolling became the leading branch of their business,
and it has steadily increased until it is no uncommon thing to turn out more metal in a single day than was at first produced in years.
The original business was established in 1812 by Aaron Benedict, and extended in 1823, with several special partners and a
capital of $6,500, still under the name of A. Benedict. This partnership was renewed from time to time with increasing capital. In
1827, it had reached §13,000. In 1829, Israel Coe became a partner under the firm name of Benedict & Coe, with capital of $20,000.
In 1834, it was $40,000, and in 1840 reached the then colossal investment of $100,000. In 1843, a joint stock company was or-
ganized, under the present tide of Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company, with paid-up capital of $100,000, with Aaron
Benedict, president and treasurer ; John S. Mitchell, secretary. Mr. Aaron Benedict continued at the head of the company until
his death in 1873. '^''"- Chas. Benedict was made secretary and treasurer in 1855, holding both offices until 1S66, when Chas.
Dickinson was chosen secretary. On the death of Aaron Benedict in 1873, Chas, Benedict was chosen president as well as treasurer,
holding both offices until his death in iS8i,when Gordon W. Burnham was made president, Chas. Dickinson, treasurer, and E. L.
Bronson, secretary. Mr. Burnham held the office until his death in 1885, at which time he had been a member of the company for
fifty years. In 1885, Mr. Chas. Dickinson, who had been the active manager of the company since the death of Mr. Benedict, was
made president ; E. L. Bronson, treasurer, and E. L. Frisbie, Jr., secretary. The corporation has increased its stock several times.
It is now nominally $400,000, but this amount must be multiplied several times to cover the cost of buildings, machinery, etc.,
covering a space of a dozen acres, employing 800 hands and producing annually many millions of pounds of metal.
From time to time various departments and outgrowths of the company have been organized into independent corporations :
(22)
The Waterbury Button Company, many years ago assuming the entire button interest (long the leading business of the company) ;
the American Pin Company (largely from this company), organized in 1846, capital, ;>ioo,ooo; the Waterbury Clock Company, or-
ganized in 1857, capital, Sioo,ooo ; the Waterbury Watch Company, in 1880, §400,000, in the latter of which this company still has
controlling interest.
The business of the company, as betbre stated, has steadily increased from year to year in volume and variety, producing brass,
gilding metal and German silver in sheets, wire, tubes and castings in large quantities, seamless brass and copper tubing, brass and
German silver beadings, fancy wire, drop handles and knobs for furniture, patent safety pins, brass and copper rivets and burs, wrought
brass butt hinges, composition roller bushings, printers' rules and galley plates, kerosene oil burners and lam]) trimmings, pure copper
and insulated electric wire ; and also make a specialty of hard-drawn copper wire for telegraph purposes.
We present several views of their works, which are so situated that no single view can adequately represent them.
The principal office is in Waterbury, with extensive stores at 24 Oliver Street, Boston, 13 Murray Street, New York, and 17
North 7th Street, Philadelphia.
THE WATERBURY WATCH COMPANY.
The last industry to locate in Waterbury was one which has probably given it a more extended celebrity than any if not all
others mentioned in this book. We refer to the manufacturing of the Waterbury watch. When one stands in the reception hall of the
Waterbury Watch Company's building, and looking directly before him finds an open room extending for one hundred and fifty feet,
having upon either side a row of continuous tables, and down the centre of the room two other rows, every few feet of table fitted
with a rapidly moving, delicate machine, and before each machine a young man or a young girl leisurely, though busily, feeding it
with metal nourishment that is the next instant thrown out in the shape of some portion of a watch, and when he turns to his right
and finds another room of equal extent occupied in the same manner, and then ascends two floors, finding each a repetition of the
first, one can comprehend the magnitude of the demand for cheap watches, and the vast though systematized labor it requires to pro-
duce, as these very rooms do produce, fifteen hundred watches every working day.
When every article of ordinary use was made by hand, and the possibilities of production were limited, because the rapidity of
human action is limited, and the extent of human endurance is bounded by a few hours, prices were high, and even necessities became
luxuries, limited to the rich. But when machinery took the place of flesh and blood, and one man or one girl could bring forth in
their day's work the former result of twenty competent artisans, then prices were reduced, the demand became universal, and there
was employment and indulgences for every one. It remained for the Waterbury Watch Company to put a fitting cap upon the achievements
of intelligence for the gratification of the masses, and place within their reach the only luxury they lacked to make them equal in
(23)
possessions to their wealthier companions — a watch. To do this, < heapness must be reached, and vast quantities made, that the
proportionate cost of each would be a minimum. Girls were trained to handle specially invented machines ; and now, when one walks
between the rows of quiet, constant workers, the progress of the watch, from its crude metal to its completion, is seen and under-
stood, and the simplicity to which thought has brought a complex and complicated process, explains, in a measure, the wonderfully
low figure at which the goods are sold. One girl controls the machine that cuts the wheels ; another, that which shapes the posts,
making shoulders where it would seem there hardly could be space for the eye to detect a scratch, so minute are the pieces ; and
another, that threads a screw and cuts its slot, though to the inexperienced looker-on, the screw, or pin, or what it may be, is barely
perceptible : a thirty-second of an inch in length are some of these bits of steel, and yet each one is polished with the same care and
perfection as though it were fifty times the magnitude. The jewels are handled by the slender fingers of half a score of girls ; the
hair spring is tested by as many more ; others, still, place these separate parts together, and make a complete and perfect whole,
while, finally, it is all encased, and the watch is entire. Enormous frames, sufficiently capacious to contain the output of six days,
occupy an upper room, in these the watches are hung, wound daily, regulated daily, examined daily, and measured with a severity
much more critical than a purchaser would hardly exercise, and if one falls an iota below the mark — which means perfection — it is
returned to the proper department, where its faults are corrected and its disabilities removed.
With a demand existent for something cheap and good, with that something ready to be produced, with a factory complete in
every detail, open, light, cool and comfortable in summer, secure, warm, protected in w-inter, with m.ichinery of the most improved
forms, and a force of over four hundred young girls and young men, is it strange that there should come from this company's many
doors a constant flow of more watches per day than are made by any other establishment in the world? Is it strange that it should call
forth such an eulogy as this from the lips of no less eloquent speaker than Hon.S. W. Kellogg? — " If you will ride though the streets of
Waterbury in the evening, you will see no more beautiful sight than the Waterbury watch factory, all lit up as it is from turret to foun-
dation stone, like a blazing jjalace of light for the cunning workmanship that is going on within its walls."
THE WATERBURY BRA.SS COMPANY.
The Waterbury Brass Company has been engaged in the manufacture of brass and wire for more than forty years. It was
organized in 1845 and rolled the first brass February 9, 1846, having built what is known as the East Mill during the previous year.
At that time this was the largest brass mill in the country. The original capital was $40,000, which has been increased from time to
time, from the earnings, to its present amount. In 1852 the business had reached such proportions that the West Mill was built, and
since that time the office of the company has been located at that mill.
(24)
Israel Holmes was elected the first president of the c()m])any ; the other officers were S>)lomon B. Minor, secretary, and Timo-
thy Porter, treasurer. Lyman W. Coe was elected secretary and treasurer at the annual meeting in 1S46, and the capital stock was
increased to ^50,000 at the same time.
Mr. Holmes resigned the presidency in 1853 and was succeeded by Mr. Coe, who held the office until 1S55, when he resigned
and John P. Elton was elected in his stead, holding the office until his death, November 10, 1864. January 25, 1865, Calvin H. Carter
was elected to the office of president, which had remained vacant since the death of Mr. Elton.
At the annual meeting in 1865 the capital stock was increased to its ])resent sum of 55400,000 ; and on the 20th of March of
the same year, the American Flask and Cap Company was consolidated with the AV'aterbury Brass Company.
The American Flask and Cap Company was formed in 1857, by the union of the .'\merican Flask Company of Meriden, Conn.,
and the Walter Hicks Percussion Cap Company of Haverstraw, N. Y. It purchased the property of the Manhan Manufacturing Com-
pany, consisting of the large stone factory and other buildings contiguous to the West Mill, and the water privilege which furnished
the power for both.
Abram Ives, the president of the .'\merican Flask and Cap Company and a director in the brass company, was elected presi-
dent of the consolidated company, which office he held until 1S67, when, having sold his stock, he resigned and Mr. Carter was again
elected president.
Two years later Joseph C. Welton suceeded Mr. Carter as president, and on the death of Mr. Welton in March. 1874, James S.
Elton was elected.
The history of the Waterbury Brass Company has been one of marked success. Its capital stock of $400,000, — which repre-
sents but a small part of the amount actuallv invested in its business, — with the exception of the ^40,000 of original capital and J 10,000
subscribed within the first year of its existence, has all been earned.
The mills of the company have been enlarged from time to time as the business demanded, until their capacity is many times
greater than at first, and yet it has hardly kept jiace with the growth of the business in this coimtry, so enormous has it been.
The present officers of the company are : James S. Elton, president ; Edward D. Steele, treasurer ; and Gillman C. Hill, secretary.
THE SCOVILL M.\NUFACTURING COMPANY.
The Scovill Manufacturing Coinpany, of whose group of factories we give several views, spreads its buildings over ten or twelve
acres of ground, so that no one view can give any clear idea of the whole.
This establishment dates back to 1802, when Abel Porter & Co. began the manufacture of gilt buttons; and, under the succes-
(25)
sive names of Leavenworth, Hayden & Scovill, J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill, and the Scovill Manufacturing Company (taking on its
corporate form in 1850), it has slowly but steadily developed from a business whose power was furnished by a single horse to its pres-
ent size.
Here are made sheet brass and German silver in great variety of forms, buttons in large quantities of almost every description,
brass, copper, German silver, and silicon bronze wire (the latter specially for electric purposes), student lamps, and various patterns of
kerosene oil burners, brass hinges, and an endless variety of small brass goods, such as match safes, curtain trimmings, ferrules, ship
chandlers' goods, and almost every conceivable form into which brass can be worked for human convenience or ornament. A walk
through their sample rooms is like a visit to a museum.
In 1842 they began the manufacture of daguerreotype plates, and since that time photographic supplies of all kinds have con-
stituted a portion of their business.
Metals, however, now enter but slightly into this art, and the other branches of manufacture connected with this department are
carried on at the company's factories in New Haven and New York City.
The views in this book were taken by a Scovill camera.
The officers of the company are : Frederick J. Kingsbury, president; Chauncey P. Goss, treasurer; Mark L. Sperry, secretary.
W. Irving Adams is agent at 423 Broome Street, N. Y. ; George B. Kerr, at 183 Lake Street, Chicago.
PLUME & ATWOOD MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
The above company was organized February 4, 1869, with a capital of §400,000, under the title of the Holmes, Booth & Atwood
Manufacturing Company, by Messrs. Holmes, Booth and Atwood, formerly of the corporation of Holmes, Booth & Haydens, and
David S. Plume, formerly of Newark, N. J., and for three years preceding manager of the Thomas Manufacturing Company, Thomas-
ton, Conn. ; during May of the same ye^r, the Thomas Manufacturing Company was consolidated with the new corporation. The
name of the company was changed January i, 1S71, to its present style. The first officers of the company were : Israel Holmes,
president ; John C. Booth, secretary ; and David S. Plume, treasurer. The company's mills at Thomaston are devoted to the manu-
facture of sheet metals, wire and other products of a regular brass mill ; while at the foctories in Waterbury, which are herein illustrated,
a great variety of articles are manufactured from materials furnished by the mill, some of the specialties being copper electrical wire,
kerosene burners and lamp trimmings, copper and brass rivets, jack-chain, hinges, pins, shoe-nails, etc. The present officers of the
company are : D. S. Plume, treasurer, and L. J. Atwood, secretary. The company have warehouses in New York, Chicago and
Boston.
(26)
THE ROGERS & HAMILTON COMPANY.
The silver plating works of the Rogers & Hamilton Company, Waterbury, Conn., are situated upon the west bank of the
Naugatuck river, in the portion of the city called Brooklyn. Built entirely of brick, in the most substantial manner, and equipped with
the latest approved machinery, they are, without doubt, the finest works of the kind in this country for the manufacture of their specialty.
Silver Plated Flat Ware.
This is the term applied by the trade to spoons, forks, knives, ladles, etc., while the term Hollow Ware is used to designate
castors, pitchers, cups, waiters, etc., usually made in soft metal, a much cheaper article than the hard nickel silver, the onJv metal used
by this company.
The managers were formerly with Rogers Brothers, in fact were the younger element of that company, and Charles A. Hamilton,
the president, has sold more " Rogers Flat Ware " than any man who ever existed. Their aim is to produce finer goods than have
heretofore been made in this country, or the world. This they have accomplished in their line of Crown Hamilton, made only in extra
weight of metal, plated heavier than any goods in market and the plating so distributed that the parts most exposed to wear have the
thickest coatings, finished with the burnish, entirely by hand, thus hardening the heavy silver coating and giving it great wearing power.
This mode of finish, in connection with the fineness of the base metal used (nearly equal in appearance to solid silver), makes the
ware practically indestructible and justifies them in guaranteeing this brand the " highest grade electro-plate ever manufactured."
This company also manufactures a somewhat lower grade of goods made of fine hard metal, in lighter weight, plated in different
grades and stamped according to the weight of the plating, viz. : Extra plate, stamped Rogers & Hamilton ; extra plate all over, with
the sectional plating added, Rogers & Hamilton XH. Triple plate all over, with sectional plating added, is stamped with numbers
according to the size of the goods, viz. : Tea spoons, Rogers & Hamilton 6 ; best spoons and forks, Rogers & Hamilton 9 ; table spoons
and medium forks, Rogers & Hamilton 13. These are guaranteed the best goods of their class in market and are also hand burnished.
The different grades are labelled and marked so plainly that no one need be deceived in purchasing if they use their eyes.
Each plate has its color in boxes, labels, tissue papers and ribbons. Extra plate, lavender ; sectional or XH plate, white and
brown, in boxes, ribbon and tissue; triple plate, buff box and labels, lilac tissue (nearly white), and white ribbon. The Crown
Hamilton colors are chocolate and gold.
(27)
ROGERS & BROTHER.
Rogers & Brother, whose works, located at Waterbury, about one and one-half miles east of the center of the city, on the banks
of Mad River, we illustrate, is the only surviving company of the several founded by the original Rogers Brothers, of Hartford, Conn.,
whose names have for forty years past been identified with the manufacture of first quality silver-plated table ware.
Of the three brothers associated in the partnership at Hartford, two, Asa H. (the plater) and Simon S. (the metalworker)
removed to Waterbury in 1858 and formed a new partnership under the name of Rogers & Brother, adopting the trade-mark
"* Rogers & Bro. A 1." They began the manufacture from rolled sheet nickel silver metal of spoons, forks, knives and other articles
of flat tal)le ware, in a greater variety of designs and on a more extensive scale than had ever before been attempted in this country.
The superiority of the goods soon created a large demand for them with the trade. The goods were so superior in design, quality and
finish, the comparatively clumsy patterns (mostly of foreign make) which had hitherto held first jilace, were soon driven out of the
market.
The rapiil growth of the business making an increase of capital necessary, the firm was incorporated, without change of name
or trade-mark, the two brothers still holding a con';rolling interest. From this time ( 1S59) on to the ])resent, the company have made
constant progress, not only in ijuality of goods, but also in improved processes of manufacture ; they have originated many and various
new designs, and also secured, by invention or purchase, every device for improving the quality of their products, many of which have
been patented, and are held liy this company exclusively, giving great advantage over competitors.
With the increase of business, the original factory has been so enlarged and improved as to be scarcely recognizable ; the erec-
tion of new buildings has completely transformed the original plant, while the picturesque beauty of the location and surroundings in
the suliurbs of the city remains unchanged and unequalled.
To the line of flat ware manufactured in Waterbury, Rogers & Brother have added, partly of their own manufacture and partly
selected in metal from others, but all of their own plating, a complete line of silver-plated hollow ware and table cutlery, which, with
their own full line of flat ware, enables them to offer to the trade at their new store. No. 16 Cortlandt Street, New York City, the largest
and most complete assortment of plated table ware to be found in this or any other country.
.\MF^RICAN PIN COMPANY.
Among the important manufacturing and commercial enterprises which contribute to the general welfare of Waterbury is
that of the American Pin Company. The business was founded and incorporated, in 1846, and has steadily increased, the
capital stock at present being $100,000. Mr. J. S. Elton is president, and Mr. T. I. Driggs, secretary and treasurer. This firm
(2$)
manufacture all sorts of wire goods, including brass and iron pins, wire pointed any length, hooks and eyes of every style, patent
standard button fasteners, a specialty being made of double-pointed pins. They also manufacture artistic fancy goods, in plush,
satin, brass, etc., of which they make a specialty for the art trade. These comprise plush placque frames, brass placques, easels,
fancy plush boxes, in new and original designs. The variety is not only very large, but the company are constantly adding novelties
in all the lines manufactured by them. Their goods are now found in the leading art stores of the United States. The factory is
located at Nos. 73-93 East Main Street, and the principal depot for the sale of their goods is at Nos. 78 and 80 Worth Street, New York.
The facilities enjoyed by the house are unsurpassed, and they give employment to a large force of skilled workmen, and the business
extends throughout the country. In its business policy, this company is liberal, enterprising and reliable, and the goods which bear
its stamp cannot be considered as inferior to any manufactured in this country.
THI>: WATKRBURY MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
The Waterbury Manufacturing Company has in its extensive works some six hundred (600) workmen, and has a deservedly
high reputation for honorable dealing and intelligent treatment of brass work — which it makes in great variety.
Its property is maintained in a neat and orderly condition, and is a credit to the place.
It is a close corporation, owned by its president, A. S. Chase, and Henry S. Chase, the treasurer and manager.
HOLMES, BOOTH & H.WDENS,
Brass manufacturers, was organized February 3, 1853. Its capital stock was at first Si 10,000, but it has steadily increased from time
to time until now it is nominally §400,000. The first five stockholders constituted the first board of directors ; Israel Holmes was
elected president, and John C. Booth, secretary and treasurer. Holmes, Booth & Haydens engaged, like other brass companies, in
rolling and drawing brass and copper. They also made the brass art-planished ware, and as a specialty they made sheets of copper
plated with silver, for daguerreotypes and other purposes. When kerosene oil was introduced for lighting purposes the company added
the manufacture of lamps and burners especially adapted to its use, Mr. Hayden taking out several patents relating to the burning of
kerosene oil, many of which proved to be a source of great profit to the company. Mr. Booth was secretary of the company the
greater part of the time from 1853 to 1867, when he retired, and, with Mr. Holmes and others, formed the Holmes & Griggs Manu-
facturing Company of New York. In 1869 Mr. Holmes joined in the foundation of another brass concern in Waterbury, which took
the name of Holmes, Booth & Atwood Manufacturing Company, afterwards changed to the Plume & Atwood Company. In 1866, a
(29)
concern was organized by Messrs. Booth, Haydens and others, for the manufacture of buttons, but was absorbed by Holmes, Booth &
Haydens. In about the same year they began the manufacture of silver-plated ware. James M. Abbott was treasurer from 1867 to
1869, when A. S. Chase was elected president and treasurer, and Mr. Abbott was made secretary, a position he held for many years.
In January, 1879, Mr. Gordon W. Burnham, of New York City, was elected president, to succeed Mr. Chase, and held that
position until his death, which occurred March iS, 18S5, at the age of 82 years. Soon after Mr. Burnham's election Mr. Huxley
severed his connection with the Boston store.
During the administration of Mr. Burnham, the manufactuting facilities of the company were materially increased by the
erection, in 1879 ^"^d 1880, of a large building, which is now used in the manufacture of wire, rivets, etc.
In February, 18S0, the large factory facing north, and known as the Spoon shop, was nearly destroyed by fire, and its re-erection
hardly begun when, in October of the same year, the buildings on the east side of the Naugatuck Railroad, known as the Brass mill and
Lamp shop, were burned. The Lamp shop was almost entirely destroyed, and the Brass mill damaged to such an extent as to cause
a nearly complete suspension of production for a time. The delay was only temporary, however, for the buildings so recently burned
were rebuilt with enlarged facilities, and with the most approved precautions against a second disaster of like nature.
At the January election of officers, in 1879, M''- I^- S. Hayden, of Waterbury, was chosen secretary, and held that office until
September, 1SS6, when, upon his resignation, Mr. H. F. Davis, of Watertown, was elected to the position, and now liolds the office.
After the death of Mr. Burnham, Mr. Henry E. Russell, of New York City, was elected president, at a special meeting of the
directors, April 7, 1885, which office he held until declining health obliged him to decline a re-election in 1887.
During the years of 18S5 and 1SS6 there were added to the already extensive works, two large additions, which were made
necessary by the increased demand for hanging lamps, — a new line of manufacture introduced in 1883, — and also to make room for
a more extensive manufacture of insulated wires for electrical purposes. This branch of the business was begun in a small way, in
1881, but not until 1S82 and 1883 did it give promise of attaining to the magnitude it has since reacherl.
Mr. C. N. Wayland, formerly a resident of Waterbury, but now of New York City, was elected president January 28, 1887, to
succeed Mr. Russell, and about the same time Mr. Samuel H. Willard withdrew from the service of the company.
After the foregoing it only seems necessary to state further that this company has been steadily progressing, adding from time to
time new and improved machinery and appliances to facilitate its productions, and it now, without doubt, ranks among the largest
producers of brass, wire and tubing. In addition to these well-known staples, the company also manufacture a large variety of small
wares, which have been developed with the growth of the business.
(30)
WATERBURY CLOCK COMPANY.
This company owes its origin to the enterprise of the managers of the Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company — the
business having been started and carried on for some time as a branch of their business. In 1857 a separate corporation was organized
under the above title. The first officers of the company were : Arad W. Welton, president ; Charles Benedict, treasurer ; and Manasseh
Bailey, secretary.
Mr. Welton was succeeded as president in 1S63 by Charles Benedict, who continued to hold the office until his death in 1881.
The esteem in which Mr. Benedict was held by his associates in this company is well expressed in this extract from a resolution passed
at a meeting of the directors of the company to appoint his successor : " A person of pure character, of sterling integrity, and of large
and liberal views, prudent in conception, energetic in action, and steadfast in purpose ; one in whom were blended in an unusual degree
the elements of conservatism and progress, judiciously e.xercised, and in whose life and conduct there was for all men, everywhere, an
example worthy of imitation."
Gordon W. Burnham succeeded Mr. Benedict as president of the company, and held the office until his death in 1885.
Although Mr. Burnham held the position very largely in a nominal sense, he being a resident of New York and fully engrossed with his
large interests in that city and elsewhere, still he gave to the company through his counsel the benefit of his ripe experience and sound
judgment, thereby continuing the growth and prosperity of the company's business.
Others who have been prominent in the affairs of the company are Manasseh Bailey, who was its first secretary. Elected treasurer
in 1858, he continued to hold that office until failing health compelled him to resign the position and his connection with the company
in 1883. During most of this period of a quarter of a century Mr. Bailey had the entire charge of the sales depots of the company,
and very much of its growth and development is due to his efficient management in that capacity. Edwin A. Lum, as secretary of the
company from his election in 1858 until his resignation in 1871, was the active manager of the manufacturing department, and during
these years devoted himself most faithfully and efficiently to the service of the company. The present officers are : Henry L. Wade,
president and treasurer, and Irving H. Chase, secretary ; both residents of Waterbury. The sales depots of the company are at No. 10
Cortlandt Street, New York, in charge of George M. Van Deventer ; 1 14 and 116 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, in charge of Henry S. Peck ;
and 123 Stockwell Street, Glasgow, Scotland, in charge of Thomas R. Dennison. From these depots the products of the manufacto-
ries, herein illustrated, find market in every quarter of the known world. These manufactories comprise two large and thoroughly
equipped establishments : one for the metal work, known as the " Movement Department ;" the other for the wood work, known as
the " Case Department." Within these shops nearly five hundred persons find daily employment. The constant aim of this company
is to produce and supply the very best goods of their kind at the lowest price consistent with the maintenance of a high standard of
quality. The success of this policy is attested by the large and active business carried on.
(31)
THE AMERICAN RING COMPANY,
Capital, $40,000; organized in 1852. The officers are: D. S. Plume, president and treasurer, and D. N. Plume, secretary. This
company manufacture furniture handles and trimmings, harness and saddle ornaments, sleigh bells, umbrella trimmings and metal
handles, ferrules and eyelets, curtain, screw and suspender rings, door-knob trimmings, etc. The company's selling agents are the
Plume cSt Atwood Manufacturing (.'ompanv.
THE WATERBURY FARREL FOUNDRY AND MACHINE COMPANY.
This concern has been closely identified, since its organization in iS5i,with Waterbury's growing industries. In connection
with the Farrel Foundry of Ansonia, Conn., this company has made a very large proportion of all the machinery used in the
rolling mills and the many factories in the Naugatuck Valley, as, also, in similar factories through Connecticut and the other States.
Until the year 1S80, the Waterbury and the Ansonia branches of the Farrel Foundry and Machine Company made one corporation ;
in 1880, the Waterbury Farrel Foundry and Machine Company was incorporated. E. C. Lewis is president of the Waterbury
company and is treasurer of the Ansonia company.
When one considers the variety of articles that are manufactured from sheet brass, and the many automatic machines that have
been made to cheapen the cost of every item, and then realizes that all of these special machines are made by this company, it will
be understood what an endless assortment of patterns they have accumulated, and why their machine shops are always so busy.
Economical and live management, comliined witli skill in adapting machinery to special requirements, have made this concern pros-
perous and of wide reputation.
THE STEELE & JOHNSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
The fictories of the Steele & Johnson Manufacturing Company are located on South Main Street. This company manufac-
tures Brass Coods of every description, and make a specialty of fancv goods, military and dress buttons.
Among other things are noticed brass and iron jack-chains, brass screws for saw handles, screws for gas and water fix-
tures, springs, nuts, washers, etc. ; in fact, these parties are prepared to furnish any goods manufactured from brass, and their
goods have a reputation throughout the country surpassed by none.
The officers of the company are : President and treasurer, Chas. M. Mitchell; secretary, Fred A. Mason; superintendent,
Benj. L. Coe.
Their store in New York City is at No. 35 Howard Street, and is in charge of Charles 1'^. Bishop, agent.
(.32)
LANE MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
Lane Manufacturing Company, Waterbury, Conn., was incorporated in 1850, their factory being at Waterbury, and their
New York store at 350 Canal Street. The officers are : E. D. Steele, president ; S. B. Lane, secretary and treasurer; H. W. French,
superintendent. F. L. Adams has charge of their New York store. They manufacture a large line of ladies' buttons, in gilt, silver,
nickel, colored metal, and cloth covered. They also manufacture a variety of fancy metal goods, and pay particular attention to metal
goods made to order. They are sole manufacturers of " Parker's Patent Pocket Scales." They are fully equipped with machinery and
tools for the successful prosecution of their business.
THE WATERBURY AMERICAN.
The American was established as a weekly paper in November, 1844, by Josiah Giles. Only seven numbers were published
when it was purchased by E. B. Cooke & Co., by whom it was conducted until June, 1868, when the American Printing Company
was formed and purchased the business. Mr. Cooke was the president of the new company, and continued nominally the editor
of the paper until his death, January 17, 1875. He was for several years, the oldest editor in the State, and was known to all the
press familiarly as "Father Cooke." The first number of the Daily American was issued May 2, 1866, under the firm of E. B.
Cooke & Co. The original stockholders of the American Printing Company, established in 1868, were: E. B. Cooke, Charles
Benedict, John C. Booth, Calvin IT Carter, John W. Smith, E. M. Hurlburt, Charles D. Hurlburt, George W. Cooke, M. L. Scud-
der, Jr., J. S. Elton, C. N. Wayland, White & Wells, A. S. Chase, S. W. Hall. The officers elected were : E. B. Cooke, presi-
dent; M. L. Scudder, Jr., treasurer; G. W. Cooke, secretary. Mr. Scudder edited the paper under "Father Cooke," who con-
tributed each week an article, summarizing the most important news under the head of "The Week," and over the signature of "C."
From the date of Mr. Scudder's resignation in 1869 to 187S, the following gentlemen were connected with the paper, either
as officers or editors, in the order named: Charles Benedict, president; J. W. Smith, treasurer; J. C. Kinney, editor; J. W.
Smith, president ; F. B. Dakin, secretary and editor. F. P. Steele succeeded Mr. Dakin, and was made secretary and treasurer,
with R. H. Smith, editor. In October, 1S77, the job printing department was sold to F. P. Steele, C. F. Pope taking the position
vacated by Mr. Steele.
The only one of the original stockholders left in the present organization of the company is A. S. Chase, who was elected
president in 1878, together with Charles R. Baldwin, secretary and treasurer, and C. F. Chapin, editor. There was a change in the
management and policy of the paper, dating from the election of these officers. The American has been Republican in principle
(33)
ever since the formation of the party, but with decidedly independent views on all public questions. Mr. A. .S. Chase is' president
of the Waterbury Bank, the VVaterbury Manufacturing Company, and several other large manufactories.
Mr. Charles R. Baldwin, the present treasurer and manager, was born in Ohio, in 1851. He is a graduate of the Western
Reserve College. He is the cashier of the Manufacturers' National Bank, treasurer of the United Press of New York, secretary of
the Horse Railroad Company, and holds many other positions of trust. Under his management the paper has been enlarged two
different times, and stands to-day in the foremost ranks of New England journals.
Mr. Charles F. Chapin, the editor, was born in South Hadley, Mass., in 1852. He served an apprenticeship as printer, on
the Democrat, Lowville, New York, and graduated at Yale College, in 1877. He came to Waterbury in 1S78. In 1883, he was
elected secretary of the company. The American is located in a fine, iron front building, which they erected in 1878, on Bank Street.
WATERBURY BUCKLE COMPANY.
This company was first organized in 1853, with a capital stock of $24,000. The amount of capital has been increased several
times, as follows : In 1856, to $30,000 ; in 1870, to $35,000 ; and again, in 1872, to $100,000. The company manufacture a very exten-
sive line of buckles, fancy articles and novelties from sheet metal and wire ; special attention is also given to manufacturing a great
variety of suspender trimmings and nickel-plated goods. The present officers of the company are : Mr. A. S. Chase, president ; Mr.
E. A. Smith, secretary and treasurer ; Mr. D. L. Smith, superintendent. Two hundred and fifty hands are employed in the factory,
which is a large two-story building, equivalent to 300 feet in length by 30 feet in width.
THE WATERBURY BUTTON COMPANY
Owes its origin to Mr. Aaron Benedict, who, in 1S12, commenced the manufacture of bone and ivory buttons. In 1823 he associated
with him Mr. Bennet Bronson and others, and enlarged the business by adding gilt buttons to his manufacture. This led to a demand
for sheet brass, which was not to be had in this country ; consequently they were obliged to erect a roUing mill and manufacture their
own product.
In 1849 'he button business was set off by itself, untler the firm name of Waterbury Button Company, which included the
button business of Mr. A. Benedict and Mr. Festus Hayden. New buildings were erected, and an impetus given to the business which
has kept it constandy ahead of its competitors. Additions, from year to year, have been made to its lines, until now they include
(34)
metal, cloth, ivory, and composition. The principal business, however, and that in which they excel, is the manufacture of military
and all uniform buttons, and fur this purpose they have thousands of dies, which are safely stored in a large fire-proof vault.
The manufacture of all kinds of novelties from sheet metal is a large branch of the business, and in this line they show some
elegant goods.
The officers of the company are : A. S. Chase, president, and J. R. Smith, secretary and treasurer.
The New York store is 48 Howard Street, where a stock is carried representing their line of manufacture.
THE MATTHEWS & WILLARD COMPANY.
Organized in 1870, with a capital stock of ?ioo,ooo. This company manufacture an endless variety of stove trimmings, nickel-
plated stove knobs, spun metal stove urns, hinge pins, covers, etc. They are also large producers of saddle, harness, and carriage
trimmings. The company occupy a large and very substantial factory, built of brick. They enjoy a large and rapidly increasing trade,
which is the best endorsement their goods can receive. H. A. Matthews is president, and S. H. Willard, treasurer.
THE AMERICAN MILLS COMPANY.
This house was incorporated and began business in the year 1881, having purchased the plant formerly owned and operated by
the American Suspender Company, who started in 1843 and continued till 1879, when misfortune overtook them. They manufac-
ture narrow elastic and non-elastic fabrics, from one-quarter inch to four inches in width, for suspenders, garters, lamp wicks, etc.
New York salesroom, 55 Leonard Street.
BLAKE & JOHNSON.
This company was organized in 1852, and has been enlarged several times, until now it is fully four limes larger than when
originally formed. Mr. H. O. Stevens is the president and treasurer. The company devote themselves largely to the manufacture of
special machinery from original designs intended for special use. They also do an extensive business manufacturing hardened cast-
steel rods for the use of jewellers, silversmiths, hollow and flat silverware, and wire manufacturers. They also build power and foot
presses, gun, cartridge, clock, jack-chain, and wire nail machinery. They manufacture a great variety of small hardware, such as piano
and organ supplies, screws, studs, and many other articles made from wire.
(35)
SMITH & GRIGGS MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
This company was organized in 1865. The capital stock is ?40.ooo. The officers are: A. S. Chase, president ; Edward S.
Smith, treasurer and manager. They manufacture a great variety of sheet-metal goods, employing a large number of hands. We
illustrate their buildings ; but they are so situated that a general view, showing the entire works, cannot be obtained.
SCOVILL HOUSE.
This popular hotel is beautifully located on West Main Street, opposite the Public Park. The house has recently been enlarged
to about twice its former size, and is newly furnished. Mr. C. I. Tremain, the proprietor, is a man of wide experience in the hotel
business, and the hosts of commercial men and others who register at the Scovill all bear testimony to his genial hospitality.
COOLEY HOUSE.
This is a new hotel, opened by the present proprietor April 5, 1S87. The house is heated by steam throughout; has electric
bells and gas ; is conducted upon both the American and European plans ; and is located upon Bank Street, opposite the Naugatuck
depot. Mr. R. V. Cooley, the proprietor, was formerly of the Mansion House, Litchfield.
THE HELLMANN & KIPP BREWERY.
One of the model manufacturing establishments in Waterbury is that of the Hellmann & Kipp Brewery. This company began
the manufacturing of lager beer, in a small way, in 1878. From the first, their business has grown rapidly, and a year ago the firm
found it impossible to supply the increasing demand with the facilities then at their command, and within the past year their present
plant has been almost entirely rebuilt, and it can be said of it that there is probably no establishment in the country which is better
adapted for the special purpose of beer brewing, of which the firm are making about 20,000 barrels annually. The individual members
of the firm are Martin Hellmann and Michael Kipp. Mr. Hellmann attends to the office and financial duties connected with the
business, while Mr. Kipp, who is a thoroughly practical brewer, — having learned the brewing trade in Germany, — has general supervi-
sion of the interior departments of the establishment.
(36)
o^WATERBURY ILLUSTRATED.^^
«
Office of Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company, (Page 22;
x-^^
-s
Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company, (Page 22.
Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company. (Page 22.)
(From a Sketch showing a General View.)
fe I g I
The Waterbury Watch Factory, (Page 23.)
Office of the Waterbury Brass Company, (Page 24.)
The Waterbury Brass Company, (Page 24.)
The Scovill Manufacturing Company. (Page 25.)
The Scovill Manufacturing Company, (Page 25.)
(From Sketch showing a General View.)
Plume & Atwood Manufacturing Company, (Page 26.)
The Rogers & Hamilton Company, (Page 27.
KOGERb & BROTHER, ^Page .8.
A
American Pin Company, (Page 28.)
The Waterbury Manufacturing Company,
Holmes, Booth & Haydens, (Page 29.)
i«»-
Waterbury Clock Company, (Page bd
(Movement Shop.
Waterbury Clock Company, (Page 31.)
(Case Shop.)
The American Ring Company, (Page 32,)
The Waterbury Farrell Foundry and Machine Company, (P.-ge 32.)
The Steele & Johnson Manufacturing Company, 'p^^
ere .i;.-!
r
ij3,^
■i
Lane Manufacturing Company, (Page 33.)
Waterbury Buckle Company, (Pag.
e 34. J
The Waterbury Button Company, (Page 34.)
The Matthews & Willard Company, (Page 35.)
A
\. ^.
i e B 1 1 i M M I
■Mill 1 1 1
,1,1 ll'll
riTRIIIII lulliP|l^,^MB
The American Mills Company, (Page 35.)
Blake & Johnson, (Page 35.)
The Smith & Griggs Manufacturing Company, (Page 36.)
Hellmann & Kipp Brewery (Page 35.;
Bank Street, looking North,
SCOVILL HOUSE-
City Hall and Bronson Library,
Exchange Place,
West Main Street,
(Looking East.)
w
o
o
GO
Trinity Episcopal Church,
Methodist Episcopal Church,
■* 1. ".. -
j4
ir-'
o
o
tx:
c_>
GO
o
St, Margaret's School,
Northern Approach to High Rock Grove,
(Naugatuck R. R.)
Residence of Mrs, Charles Benedict,
Residence of James S, Elton,
'" W:
»sr.7;\v>'i- -r-JEK.
iiwr
'"""^Ih
^
Residence of F, J, Kingsbury,
EPISCOPAL PARSONAGE.
Church Street,
jhn c. booth.
Bird's-Eye View of Waterbury,
(From High Rock.)
?<iiaiiiifiMwii lit :..:;,ibiu^stfaifiM^
KH^
Bird's-Eye View of Waterbury,
(From Abrigador Hill.)
Bird's-Eye View of Waterbury,
(From Town Plot.)
Waterbury Hospital Buildings.
H47 75
•■^
'"-^^0^
-.r- u-
y?Z^%
o V
. "i- c o ■ o .
-.v^-
^'^^.
•' rO
,0^
'X'-
f>-
,.*-
^'^•^^..
c^r.
^ "%
G^ 'o '» . . ' A <v G
'b v^ : - --v" • ^- 0*
•i^. ..V
■"'^..,.,-
-j^^
■y"
^
V
v->
iv "^j
A"
■^-^
o
to '-
■fu
,0-^
-{►
•%
^^.
A
,\
V.^^
.-».'
■ 0'
,v '5*.
^\^
0'
>'rr5^/;'- ■>^_. ,<:
\^^^
y- <•
<r
*'ISt$W->' ^v' ■';^
^
'' .0
>"'
•5^
V*
n''- ^ "
' %
v.
^^.
a'' , 0 « « , "-^^
>3. 'o . . * A
^*
-^^n^
•^ *:i««?i
■\
^°"<^^
-*-
■ o . o' .0
ex '4
^€1^ N. MANCHESTER.
■ INDIANA
% ■" v"" ••• "
A-i>'
,*"■
C°' / ■
°o
"o V'
.<•
mm:mmmmmwm§^^^^
liiiiii^
^iiiiiiii
Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11